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Freida Pinto
The news is out. Freida Pinto, who somebody said went from obscurity to worldwide superstardom in the blink of a well-curled eyelash with Slumdog Millionaire, has bagged the biggest and perhaps best role of her young career as an actress.
It is in Tarsem Singh’s $100 million Greek mythological epic War of The Gods which will release in the summer of 2011. An excited Hollywood press is supposed to have cranked up the buzz blaster and Tarsem himself described his film “as a larger-than-life adventure with the look and feel of an Italian
renaissance painting — a setting well-suited to Freida’s timeless beauty”.
The actress, who plays Phaedra — the hero’s oracle in War of The Gods, was in Mumbai when the story broke. I met her for tea one evening at a city hotel poolside where she was shooting a campaign for a UK human rights organisation. She walked upto me with her hair blowing madly in the breeze, long legs flashing in snug designer jeans, golden-beige thongs peeping carelessly over the waistband through a tomato-red top. I thought she looked what she was, a sweet and young Catholic girl from Malad in whom Danny Boyle saw some spark and cast in Slumdog, changing Freida’s life forever.
She’s been in Mumbai since Christmas, spending time with her family, catching up with cousins, dodging the media which wanted details of her love life with Slumdog co-star Dev Patel. “My career made me known to the media, so keep it at that, I don’t want to divulge personal details of my life. And if I truly and honestly believe I have nothing to say, why bore people with my chatter,” Freida asked. So that was that about Dev Patel. I asked her what she had been doing all of last year, after Slumdog swept the Golden Globe and Oscars, taking her from Malad and screen tests and auditions in Bollywood to red carpets alongside Hollywood’s most glamorous. “Two films,” she replied, “for which I spent four months in Israel and four months in London, that took care of 2009.”
The films are Miral, a Franco-Israeli film based in war-torn Jerusalem during Israel’s 1948 partition from Palestine. And You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, a Woody Allen film, in which Freida acts opposite Josh Brolin, and with Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Naomi Watts. “What about the James Bond role,” I asked. “I have no idea where that came from,” Freida shrugged, “even my LA agents were curious. But this is a Bond thing, it happens with a lot of actresses, or with those in the news. It was very flattering, I must say, and I don’t know if I would have done it. I’m too young to be a Bond girl. There’s not much of a role, though some of them have become iconic, and you need somebody more mature and beautiful than me.” This coming from someone described by the international fashion police as being among the most beautiful, best dressed, desirable and stylish women of the world. “Oh that’s nothing,” she said dismissively, “there will always be someone else next year. I want to be an actress who will be remembered.”
Isn’t it strange, that despite her success in Hollywood, there are no roles yet for Freida to play in Bollywood? She clicked her tongue in irritation, “I haven’t said no to Bollywood, I am looking at scripts, when I hit the nail on the head — I will announce it. I have to do a Hindi film. Bollywood is changing, it is globally appealing, and the stars here all treat me well.”
They pat Freida on the back when their paths cross and tell her, “Keep it up, babe.” But there’s only one star in Bollywood who she looks upto. “Shah Rukh Khan,” she said, “His is by far the most inspirational story of all, he’s graceful, charming, and so wonderful, the best representation that India can have internationally.” She co-presented an award with SRK at the Golden Globes last year. “And I don’t know yet if I was more excited or nervous to be standing next to Shah Rukh Khan,” she giggled like an infatuated teen.
What would she have been doing if Slumdog hadn’t happened, I asked. “I’d be struggling, I still am — actually, the struggle never ends. Before Slumdog, I’d wake up and wait for a call from my agency. Then go for auditions, trying to make it, get a break in Bollywood.” And now she’s, what, the highest paid actress in India? “Oh dear, who said that,” Freida wanted to know, “and where’s the money? Nothing came to me!” But yes, what Slumdog had done was it made her more confident. And it opened Hollywood up to her. “It gave me the opportunity to choose what I want to do. Unless you get success, you don’t get the privilege to say yes and no,” admitted Freida. “But at home, they treat me the same as before, my mother is always telling me not to leave my things lying around, and I roam about the house in pajamas. But I cannot go down and play 7 Tiles anymore with the other building kids...”